UGO LA PIETRA
THE ARTIST AND THE CITY
Curated by Flaminio Gualdoni
Opening: thursday 30 march 2023
6:30 PM
ABC-ARTE ONE OF, Milan
The new season of exhibitions of the gallery ABC-ARTE continues with another retrospective in two acts, or rather, in two spaces (Genoa and Milan), which will both host a unique and grand protagonist: Ugo La Pietra.
In parallel with the exhibition ‘The artist and the city’ (opening 16 March) curated by Flaminio Gualdoni and installed in the Genoese gallery, from 30 March the new space ABC-ARTE ONE OF in Milan will present three installations created especially for the gallery spaces by the artist.
The first space presents ‘The city flows at my feet’. This space is characterised by the juxtaposition of two large canvases (200 x 100 cm), one of the same title and the other entitled ‘Development city countryside’.
The second space contains the installation ‘Relation between architecture and nature – Relation Inside/Outside’, where the artist meditates simultaneously on how nature always overcomes architecture, and also on the destruction of the wall that separates public from private space.
The emblematic work of Lucio La Pietra ‘The city that flows’ (2015) concludes this ideal triptych. It is a reworking of the work of Ugo La Pietra entitled ‘The city flows at my feet’ (2010) in a video installation: the projection onto a ceramic book presents in a dynamic and spectacular fashion come reflections on the development of the city.
The artist, architect by training, film maker, editor, musician, cartoonist and teacher, but above all researcher on the system of communication and of the visual arts, as he prefers to define himself. In this comprehensive exhibition route curated by Flaminio Gualdoni, Ugo La Pietra immerses us in more than fifty years of study on the relation individual-surroundings. He has explored this relation primarily in the urban context, arguing for the demolition of the barrier between public and private space. He has done so using various forms of expression and an artistic practice motivated by the slogan ‘To inhabit is to be at home everywhere’.
The exhibition, accompanied by a new bilingual monograph with a rich documentary apparatus, published by ABC-ARTE edizioni, marks the start of the permanent collaboration between ABC-ARTE and Ugo La Pietra.
Artist biography
Born in Bussi sul Tirino (Pescara) in 1938, hailing from Arpino (Frosinone), the artist lives and works in Milan, where he graduated from the Politecnico in Architecture. An architect by training, artist, film maker, editor, musician, cartoonist and teacher, from 1960 he has defined himself as a researcher on the system of communication and the visual arts, operating simultaneously in the fields of art and projects. An untiring experimenter, he has passed through various movements (from Sign Painting to Conceptual Art, from Narrative Art to art cinema) and made us of many different media, conducting researches that have taken shape in the theory of the ‘Disbalanced System’ – an autonomous expression within Radical Design – and in important sociological themes such as “La casa telematica” (MoMA New York, 1972 – Fiera di Milano, 1983), “Rapporto tra Spazio reale e Spazio virtuale” (Triennale di Milano 1979, 1992), “La casa neoeclettica” (Abitare il tempo, 1990), “Cultura Balneare” (Centro Culturale Cattolica, 1985/95). He has disseminated his work through many exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and in various shows in the Triennale di Milano, Biennale di Venezia, Musée d’art contemporain in Lyon, Musée FRAC in Orléans, Museo delle Ceramiche in Faenza, Fondazione Ragghianti in Lucca, Fondazione Mudima in Milan, Museo MA*GA in Gallarate. He has always critically supported the humanist, significant and territorial component of art and the project with works and objects, as well as theoretical, didactic and editorial activity.
Public collections in Italy:
Triennale Design Museum, Milan; Museo della Permanente, Milan; Fondazione Cineteca Italiana, Milan; Museo del Novecento, Milan; Gallerie d’Italia - Collezione Intesa SanPaolo, Milan; Fondazione Ragghianti, Lucca; Fondazione Umberto Mastroianni, Arpino (FR); Fondazione Orestiadi, Gibellina (PA); MIC Museo Internazionale della Ceramica, Faenza (RA); Museo Hoffmann, Caltagirone (CT); Museo Fondazione Rocco Guglielmo, Catanzaro; Museo Palazzo Ducale, Tagliacozzo (AQ); Fondazione PLART, Naples; Museo MAAM Fondazione Aldo Morelato, Cerea (VR); MAGA Museo Arte Gallarate (VA); Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria; MORE (Museum of Refused and Unrealized Art Projects), Museo Arte Contemporanea, Lissone.
International collections:
MoMA, Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, USA); SF MoMA Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA, USA); Yale University (USA), Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library; Centre Pompidou, Paris; FRAC Centre, Orléans; Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne; Neue Galerie, Graz; Museé Departemental, Gap; Nordico Stadtmuseum, Linz; Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
ABC-ARTE ONE OF
Via Santa Croce 21, 20121 Milan
T. 02 89 76 80 94
press@abc-arte.com
www.abc-arte.com
Ugo La Pietra. The artist and the city
30 March – 25 May 2023
Tue-Sat: 09:30-13:30 e 14:30-18:30
Sun-Mon: by appointment